9 July-- Monday
We used most of the morning to make phone calls, post blog entries, and generally catch up on things. We departed Laredo around noon for Monterrey, Mexico. After crossing the bridge into Nuevo Laredo, we spent 2 hours getting visas, a permit to drive the car in Mexico, and temporary car insurance. Consensus after this lengthy and expensive process is that CPT should either go to Mexico for longer periods of time, or take the bus. Driving into the interior for only a one day visit is not worth the time and cost required.
We arrived in Monterrey around 5 pm after the exciting (harrowing?) experience of rush hour in Mexico's 3rd largest city. We met Meliton and Diego at the FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee) office, a happy reunion for Sarah and Meliton. The FLOC offices re-opened on 30 June 2007 after completing the renovations following the murder of Santiago Rafael Cruz, a former FLOC Monterrey worker. Sarah enjoyed the chance to return and follow up on CPT's previous work with FLOC in May/June 2007. We discussed plans for the next day and wrote and translated questions for Meliton to prepare for the next morning. After we settled in at the Casa del Migrante down the street, we wandered the booths of artisan vendors in the park down the street and got supper with Meliton and Diego.
10 July-- Tuesday
BWD met with Meliton this morning. He responded to the list of 15 queries the team had drafted. Meliton provided a background history to the 30-year-old program, which also has offices in Toledo, OH and Charlotte, NC, the latter of which we will visit in two weeks. FLOC, a committee of the AFL-CIO, offers Mexicans who are seasonal agricultural workers representation with the NCGA (North Carolina Growers Association). The historic agreement between FLOC and the NCGA means that the growers pay for the workers’ H2A visas, travel monies and housing. FLOC provides the workers advocacy regarding working conditions. FLOC is a viable alternative to workers trying to fill agricultural positions in the US without having to cross the border undocumented or pay exorbitant prices to contractors to facilitate the immigration process.
We departed Monterrey after lunch and drove to Brownsville, TX, arriving in time to meet CPTer Elizabeth Garcia and attend an organizing meeting for the vigil against the border wall this coming Saturday, the 14th.
11 July-- Wednesday
Team day off in Brownsville started with catching up on e-mail, writing logs, doing laundry and other errands. By noontime, we were headed to the beach on South Padre Island for a wonderful afternoon of sun, surf and sand, plus birdwatching. John also led thoughtful devotions on the beach. Dinner on the way home, and the opening of Harry Potter #5, finished a much-needed day of renewal.
12 July-- ThursdayThe day began with the weekly call with Mark, then preparations for a press conference with local media about the BWD and this coming Saturday's vigil opposing the wall. Elizabeth has good contacts with the local media and set this up for us. Two local TV stations and two print journalists from Matamoros showed up (see our earlier post for a link).
Our first afternoon appointment was lunch with Annaken Toews, who works with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) as an advocate for unaccompanied undocumented minors. Children get into this system when they are apprehended by the Border Patrol and not in the presence of an adult. There are currently somewhere around 360 to 380 such minors in institutions in the RGV. Some of them are in foster care, and some in dormitory-like settings. This program is administered by the Office of Refugees and Resettlement (ORR), which is a division of the Dep't of Health and Human Services, rather than Homeland Security. Annaken's program advocates for the best interests of the child, which often means reunification with documented relatives in the U.S. Ironically, minors in this program are substantially better off than their counterparts imprisoned at the T. Don Hutto detention center, even though the latter group are with their families. LIRS has published a report which recommends that Hutto be shut down.
Next we went to Harlingen to discuss the Raymondville detention center with Jodi Goodwin, an immigration lawyer. Jodi currently represents several clients who are detained in "Ritmo," and she is one of the few outsiders who has been inside. This prison houses undocumented immigrants from countries other than Mexico.
In the evening, John accompanied Elizabeth across to Matamoros to invite residents there to sign the banner opposing the wall. The rest of us stayed behind to catch up on various things; Sarah and her hosts managed to see one of the station's coverage of the press conference on the nine o'clock news.
13 July-- Friday
The day began with a morning meeting in San Benito with Alfredo Hernandez of Proyecto Libertad, and Jose Luis Vasquez and Elia Garcia from El Movimiento del Valle. We learned of El Movimiento's unique agreement with Cameron County law enforcement officials, which includes a commitment from police and the sheriff not to call Border Patrol or ICE agents when they stop people for traffic violations. Legally, they aren't supposed to call BP or ICE in those circumstances in the first place, but it's been happening a lot. We heard more about the DREAM Act, which would provide financial means and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented college students. However, as Jose Luis noted, it also starts to divide the family, when certain individuals in the family have one status and some have another.
After a brief picnic lunch, we continued on to visit the LUPE offices. LUPE, "La Union del Pueblo Entero," continues in the tradition of the United Farm Workers and Cesar Chavez. Olga Cardoso detailed LUPE's work organizing immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley. We also spent some time with Marta and Carlos, from one of LUPE's outlying offices. They took us to visit some of the colonias on the outskirts of Alton, TX. Lots in the colonias sell for $20-25,000, often with up to 18% interest. Families spend 15 years paying off the lot, and then begin to put money towards a house. They usually can't afford to pay towards both at the same time, so much of the hosuing is substandard.
14 July-- Saturday
The morning was consumed by errands and paperwork. Afternoon devotions commemorated the life of a Guatemalan woman whose body was found in the Arizona desert this week by No More Deaths volunteers. A similar commemoration was held today in Arizona. We prepared for tomorrow’s presence at Raymondville detention camp, including a banner reading, “Close Ritmo Now”.
The evening's focus was the rally against the border wall organized by Elizabeth Garcia and other local activists. Events began with a pachanga at San Felipe de Jesus church. After a press conference, the group of 50 to 100 folks proceeded to a city park on the border, where we were joined by others for a rally, the formation of a symbolic wall of people hand-in-hand broken by the borderlands litany, and a procession through downtown Brownsville to Ft. Brown.
The grand finale at the end of the walk was a wall-shaped piñata smashed open by children. Our last sunset in Brownsville was highlighted by the laughter of children sorting through candy (and those of a few adults, too). See Elizabeth's blog for pictures of the event.
After Mass (our second one in Spanish in as many weeks) and breakfast at San Felipe de Jesus in Brownsville, we headed to Raymondville for the “Close Ritmo Now” vigil. See Haven's earlier post for details.
After the vigil we drove on towards New Orleans, stopping for the night in Beaumont, TX.
No comments:
Post a Comment